The present invention concerns belt conveyors and particulary that type of conveyor suitable for conveying lightweight materials.
Typical conveyors include a continuous belt supported at spaced apart points therealong by conveyor rolls. These rolls, as well as additional subjacent idler rolls on which the return run of the belt is supported, require costly bearing supports in place on the conveyor sides. Such conveyors are costly to fabricate and do not lend themselves to convenient disassembly and reassembly nor low cost shipping. Further, the overall weight of typical conveyors is such as to render shipping of same quite costly.
In the prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 2,094,728 shows a conveyor with side members of irregular section with rollers journaled therein which are not structural crossmembers of the conveyor. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,964,800 and 3,194,388 show conveyor wear plates lengthwise orientated to the conveyor belt; U.S. Pat. No. 3,817,355 shows a belt entrained over a supporting stationary surface; U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,668 discloses a crosswise belt supporting member held in place by oppositely abutting ends of conveyor pan sections. Collectively the known prior art fails to disclose a conveyor particularly suited to low cost shipping and assembly the latter requiring but a minimum of tools and mechanical ability and requiring little or no maintenance.